Just be yourself – review of the movie “Dora and the City of Gold”

Watching the trailer for Dora and the City of Gold , I did not know what to expect from this project and whether it had a chance to work out at all. After all, how is it possible to make an adventure movie based on an educational cartoon that resembles the origin story of young Lara Croft? Did the final effect turn out to be a positive surprise?

From television to cinemas

At the beginning, it is worth devoting a few words to the source material, as slightly older readers may not know where the film Dora actually came from . The production is based on the cult animation Dora Explore the World broadcast by Nickelodeon in the years 2000-2014. The series was realized in the formula of an educational program, so the adventures of a nice girl were a pretext to flood the few-year-old viewers with natural curiosities and new, original words. It seems that this is not the best material to turn into adventure cinema. The more I am amazed that the creators of the film Dora and the City of Gold came out of this task unscathed.

The hardships of growing up

The production focuses on the fate of teenage Dora, who travels the world with her parents looking for the lost city of Parapata. However, as the family gets closer to the discovery, adults find that their lifestyle is too dangerous for a young girl. Thus, the heroine is sent to relatives living in a larger city. Although theoretically she leaves the jungle and should feel confident in the civilized world, she finds herself in a completely new place where she has to find herself and learn to relate with her peers. One might expect to get a classic story of maturing and adapting to the environment.

In part, this is indeed the case, because the film does not lack threads containing lessons for young audiences, but the main message is elsewhere. Slightly asocial Dora does not try to adapt to the realities of the school. The scene most accurately depicts the situation, where the protagonist directly says that she cannot behave otherwise. The creators pay attention to not succumbing to conformism and maintaining their own personality, which is nothing inappropriate, as long as it does not pose a threat to others. It even turns out that it’s worth being just yourself.

Time for an adventure

Dora’s unusual approach to life turns out to be very useful, because the scenes at school are actually a short, transitional stage of the film, and the action quickly returns to where it should be, which is the jungle. As a result of a certain twist of events, the group of heroes outlined in the trailers must find the city of Parapata on their own. From then on, I had a real opportunity to confront the promotional material with the film itself. Has the animation really been turned into an adventure blockbuster? Well, yes and no. There are certainly numerous traces from the cinema of a new adventure, especially in the ending strongly associated with The Last Crusade . However, the creators are still aware of the source material they work on and are not ashamed of it at all. On the contrary, they take the script seriously, not being ironic anywhere.Dora and the City of Gold is simply honest cinema for children. Nobody tries to introduce additional humor to the older audience. We have, however, cases of tearing down the fourth wall, when Dora suddenly turns to the viewer and begins to educate. Following the example of the animation, she is accompanied by a nice monkey, and the antagonists use the services of Lisa Rabusia. Unfortunately, the CGI of these animals leaves a lot to be desired.

Praise of innocence

Coming back to the humor, it kind of impresses me how honest the film is with the audience. I have not come across any intrusive jokes. Here, even a song about pooping in the middle of the jungle is amusing, precisely because it’s real and made with heart. We also have references to the original, for example in the form of a talking backpack. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the scene of hallucinations under the influence of certain substances. Amazingly, this is one of the most imaginative and fun scenes of this type I have ever seen in movies.

The creation of the main character deserves recognition. Dora (Isabela Mosner) disarms her with her anticinism and is a genuinely nice girl who is impossible not to like, and shows positive attitudes to the young viewer. The associations with Tomb Raider before the premiere were so abstract that Dora does not have a hint of Lara Croft’s hypocrisy, who ruins and loots old temples so that the worse would not do it. Already at the beginning of the City of Gold, the matter is clear – the explorers are righteous and the treasure hunters are bad. Therefore, the girl never thinks about taking something for herself.

The expedition awaits!

In summary, the screening of Dora and the City of Gold turned out to be surprisingly successful. This is a light and very self-aware adventure game, which is intended primarily for the youngest and will definitely hit because it has been cut really neatly. The film has positive attitudes, presenting them in a pleasant way, and sincere humor only adds to the charm. Older viewers taking their children or siblings to the cinema will not feel that they are dealing only with a calculated product. The creators clearly put their heart into their work.

We would like to thank the Cinema City network for the opportunity to watch the film.